Council Hesitates on $13.5M Ask for Historic Brooklyn Site, Drawing Scrutiny and Skepticism
By Jack Beckett
Senior Writer, The Charlotte Mercury
At Monday night’s Charlotte City Council meeting, the most significant number on the agenda wasn’t a vote count. It was a dollar amount: $13.5 million, the largest single Housing Trust Fund request in city history. The project? A long-delayed affordable housing development on land once home to Brooklyn Village, the historically Black neighborhood razed during urban renewal.
And just like that neighborhood, the plan to bring something back was pushed aside again.
The council didn’t vote it down or approve it. Instead, they did what Charlotte does best when confronted with a big ask and a fraught legacy: they punted.
“Proceed with caution.”
The phrase came from Councilmember Malcolm Graham, who didn’t bother to sugarcoat his skepticism.
“I’m not optimistic about the development team,” he said bluntly. “Maybe they should be convening and inviting us in, instead of us trying to solve their problem that they haven’t been able to solve over a decade.”
The project was formally “deferred,” pending further meetings between the city, Mecklenburg County, Inlivian, and the developer, hoping to find alternatives to the current funding structure.
But let’s not pretend this was procedural housekeeping. The message was loud, clear, and bipartisan: nobody trusts this project to deliver.
10 years in limbo
The Brooklyn Village redevelopment has been hanging over Charlotte’s political life for the better part of a decade. The original promises of housing, retail, and restorative investment have mutated into a series of delays, redesigned site plans, and shifting expectations. Monday’s proposal would have consumed nearly the entire rental housing production budget from the newly-expanded $100 million housing bond.
Housing Director Rebecca Hefner struck a diplomatic tone.
“This is the largest ask in housing trust fund history,” she said, proposing a working group to “see if we can get the cost down or help the development partner find other sources.”
It wasn’t enough to calm the room.
Mayor Pro Tem Dante Anderson said the project “underscores the importance of doing right by that space,” but even the most supportive voices stopped short of calling for immediate action. Councilmember Victoria Watlington, typically a staunch housing advocate, echoed the need to revisit the numbers and “circle the wagons.”
What’s missing?
What was not discussed — not once — was a deadline. A timeline. Any kind of future vote date. Just a loose “we’ll bring a recommendation back in June.” There was no motion. There was no dissent. There was simply a void.
For some, like Councilmember Tiawana Brown, that absence hit especially hard. She connected the decision to the city’s broader pattern of displacement and silence.
“Everything is being knocked down,” she said. “Our history is disappearing.”
Her voice joined others — Councilmembers Ajmera and Molina, in particular — urging council not to let caution morph into another decade of inaction.
But no amendments were offered. No one fought to carve out a smaller number. No one suggested conditional funding. The proposal wasn’t shaped. It was shelved.
The cost of caution
Deferred proposals in Charlotte’s Housing Trust Fund world don’t always come back. Funding rounds shift. Political winds change. Developers walk. And the calendar doesn’t lie: this was the first round of funding under the new policy, the most ambitious affordable housing strategy the city has ever attempted.
For a moment, the energy was there. Over 25 proposals were submitted. Council approved 13 projects across five categories, totaling more than $35 million. But Brooklyn Village got none of it.
Council’s commitment to affordability is real — the numbers show that. But its commitment to rectifying past harm? That’s still on hold. Again.
Charlotte tore down Brooklyn once. And Monday night, it did it again — only this time with a nod, a deferral, and a calendar cleared of any urgency.
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Jack Beckett
Senior Writer, The Charlotte Mercury
Likes his housing policy strong, his espresso stronger, and his historic districts not bulldozed. Summit fuels the writing. Glory Days handles the wardrobe. The rest is up to council.
